Areshpreet Wedech, "Frauen im Sikhismus", November 23 2018

Areshpreet Wedech, "Frauen im Sikhismus", November 23 2018

Following a blocked seminar concerning Sikhism that she had held in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Wolfram Reiss, Areshpreet Wedech, MA, gave a public lecture on women in Sikhism on November 23, 2018. As a first step, she approached the role of women in this religion from a historic point of view. Starting with the beginnings of the religion in the 15th century in India and following its development to the emergence of the Sikh’s holy text, the Guru Granth Sahib, Aresphreet Wedech reconstructed single episodes and named essential sources that confirm the equality of women.

In a second part, she connected this with the situation nowadays as it manifests in the administrative institution “Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee” (SGPC), in several institutions for education and in hospitals in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Harvana, districts of India. But in opposition to that, Areshpreet Wedech emphasised, there are also conflicts and contradictions concerning the status of women in Sikhism.

The well-founded information on this religion allowed the auditorium an enriching insight into a religious tradition that is exercised by a few thousand people in Austria, but barely known to a broader public.